After ending 2021 with a WTA Finals title win, Spanish Garbine Muguruza started the new season with another victory this Wednesday. Seed number 2 at the WTA 500 in Sydney, Australia, she sent off Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets, taking just 1 hour 30 minutes to score 6/1 and 7/6 (7/4) partials.
Going straight into the second round of the tournament, with a win in her debut, Muguruza, currently ranked No. 3 in the world, has already secured herself in the quarter-finals and will face Russian Daria Kasatkina, who won the Belgian Ellis Mertens was also defeated in straight sets. Score end of 6/3 and 6/4.
Czech Petra Kvitova, who after making her Adelaide debut last week, has now advanced only to the second round, who still hasn’t managed to start the season. Her tormentor was Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who has a better moment than her opponent on the WTA circuit and managed to win 0 from 2 sets, with a double 6/4.
In the quarter-finals, the Tunisian, ranked seventh, will face Estonian Annette Kontaveit, who claimed the position of fourth favorite and knocked out Romanian quali Elena-Gabriela Russe with final scores of 6/3 and 6/1. .
In another tournament this week that serves as preparation for the Australian Open, the Americans had an excellent round at the WTA 250 in Adelaide this Wednesday. All five tennis players from the country who were on the court won their games and secured a place in the quarter-finals. The highlight is young Coco Gauff, already ranked 19th in the world at the age of 17, who comes to the deciding stage of the tournament with the status of a favorite and continues to hunt for her third title in the elite league.
Gough is already the highest-ranked player in the quarterfinals, but she had a hard time getting past her second engagement of the tournament. She won the new generation duel against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, also 19 years old and ranked 50th, 6/3, 5/7 and 6/3. She will face Croatian Anna Konjuh in the quarterfinals, who defeated Czech Marketa Vondrosova 4/6, 6/2 and 7/6 (7/3).
Despite his young age, Gauff is already thinking about adjusting to the new season and what he needs to work on, especially on the mental side of the game and wants to avoid distractions off the court. “I’m always the type of person who is never satisfied, I always want to improve and starve. When I win a tournament, I start thinking about the next one. But sometimes I I try to take a step back and enjoy things. I’ve achieved. It’s something I’ve been working on, and it’s something people tell me that I need to work on.”
“I would say I am doing great, but obviously I want to do better. And I will do better. I need less time on TikTok. I don’t know exactly my screen time, but I definitely I would say it is at least two to three hours a day. I have to work on it”, said the young tennis player.
Madison Keys, former top 10 and current 87th in the world, moved on with more calmness. She passed the Czech Tereza Martinkova 6/1 and 6/3. Her next opponent is Russian Lyudmila Samsonova, seeded 8th in the tournament and ranked 39th in the rankings, who beat Spain’s Nuria Parijas Diaz 6/2 and 6/1.
